Now

(Here’s a brief explanation of what a now page does…)

Updated April 13, 2025 from Athens, GA.

  • I am just wrapping up my second semester at the University of Georgia, serving as the Graduate Assistant for the Dancz Center for New Music.
  • This summer I will be traveling to Italy to participate in the highSCORE Festival just outside of Venice. I’m working on a new piece for piano trio entitled Visible Mending which will be premiered at the festival, and I’m tremendously excited to connect with colleagues and hear about the kinds of writing and research that composers around the world are undertaking.
  • I am currently reading Roger Lipsey’s biography of Dag Hammarskjöld and enjoying learning more about his life after reading through Markings this past year.
  • I am continuing to work on a set of short character pieces for solo piano inspired by my friends, called Album Amicorum. I premiered the first set of four movements last semester and am envisioning that the set will continue growing as I have time.
  • My new work for chamber symphony and electronics – Simple Sabotage – will receive a reading this month when the Atlanta Contemporary Music Collective come to Athens for their residency here at the Dancz Center – ATLCMC has been tremendously generous with their time and energy to present this opportunity to the composers here at UGA, and I can’t wait to hear Simple Sabotage come to life!
  • Scablands, my new piece for saxophone quartet, electronics, and video premiered this semester; it’s the first piece I’ve written to include an accompanying video, and it was both a challenge and joy to put together. Many thanks to Bruce Bjornstad for generously allowing me to use his drone footage of the Scablands in the Pacific Northwest for the video.
  • Over the past year, I started a weekly Music Technology Workshop that meets on Wednesdays at the Dancz Center to work through music tech tutorials and troubleshooting together. We’re currently enjoying Dr. Eli Fieldsteel‘s tutorials on SuperCollider
  • This past summer, I tremendously enjoyed diving into Simon Critchley’s book, Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction. I’ve been energized by its implications for understanding the humanities, faith & queerness, and progressive/conservative disagreements.
  • Since Fall of 2023, I’ve been experimenting with the new experimental Blockhead DAW for use in my work, and I’ve having a fantastic time. I’d encourage any composer or music maker to take a look and support its development.
  • I am continuing some experiments with creating generative music using PureData (Pd), Max, and recorded sounds. My first foray into this area was Send Light, Room I – a piece for generative 4-channel sound and accompanying real-time visualization which sets various prayers, poems, and texts from the historic Christian tradition. Last semester, I worked on a sort of sequel piece (Send Light, Room II) which reflected on the themes and atmosphere of Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (see below).
  • I’ve been continuing to enjoy the poetry of H.D. and Kevin Young’s poetry collection, Book of Hours. More recently, I’ve been diving into The Essential W.S. Merwin and have greatly enjoyed Matthew Olzmann’s Constellation Route. I read Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves for several months over the summer of 2023 and have enjoyed learning more about ergodic literature and open forms in music.
  • I have continued my investigation of the use of constraint techniques in the arts, and have enjoyed reading through Mathematics and Optimal Form by Stefan Hildebrandt and Anthony Tromba, which describes the history of optimization problems in mathematics and the application of these mathematical discoveries to the natural sciences, engineering, art, design, and architecture.